In many instances, it is desirable to publish content on a communication network for access by others. The content may take various forms, examples of which include digital media such as music or video, and computer programs or scripts such as games, utilities, test scripts, and productivity software, for instance.
One way to publish content on a communication network is to store the content on a network server and to post an online catalog-entry that provides a link to the content, so that others can browse the catalog and selectively download the content by clicking on the link. For instance, an online content host might maintain a content-catalog, and a content provider might store content on a network server and arrange with the content host to list the provider's content in the content-catalog. When a user browses the host's content-catalog, the user may then opt to download the provider's content, by clicking on an associated link for instance, which may cause the content to be communicated from the provider's server to the user's computer. This content-publication arrangement could underlie an online content store, a peer-to-peer content sharing service, or other services.
A risk in this or other content-publication processes, however, is that a content-supplier may either deliberately or inadvertently provide a content file that contains bogus, harmful, inoperable, unauthorized, and/or otherwise unacceptable data. For example, a content-supplier might post or otherwise make available in an online content-catalog a link or listing for a particular media file (such as song or video), but the associated file may in fact contain some other media (e.g., a different song or video) or some other sort of data altogether. As another example, a content-supplier might post or otherwise make available in an online content-catalog a link or listing for a particular computer program or test script that supposedly defines or carries out particular functions, but the associated file(s) may in fact not define or carry out those functions, or may not do so satisfactorily. Unfortunately in these or similar situations, a user may unwittingly download listed content believing the content to be legitimate and satisfactory, only to find out later that the content is not in fact what it purports to be or is otherwise not fit for its intended purpose. Consequently, an improvement is desired.